Automatic digital imaging applications, such as the production of photographs on compact discs, and index prints on such discs, digitally printed automatic album pages, etc., require that the images be correctly oriented before the final output image format is generated. Currently these automatic procedures must be interrupted by a skilled operator who manually corrects any orientation failures, such as vertical (portrait) or upside down images. Upside down or inverted images occur with 35 mm cameras and most SUC's (single use cameras) that use right side load film transports. In these types of cameras, the film is loaded on the opposite side of the film gate relative to "normal" configuration cameras. The images produced by these cameras will be inverted in the final output format unless the exposed films are identified as such. Manual sorting of film is not possible prior to processing, since there is no way to determine if the camera was of the reverse wind variety. SUC's can be sorted, but this is a time consuming and costly process.
The knowledge of the image orientation of a scene also has application to convention optical printing. For example, the yield (percentage of acceptable/saleable) of automatic exposure determination and subject classification algorithms used with optical printers would be increased if image orientation information were available.
Thus, there is currently a need for a mechanism, which, when applied to entire customer orders, can discriminate film images captured in left side load cameras from images that were captured in right side load cameras. There is also need for a mechanism for automatically determining the orientation of an entire order of recorded images that are being processed, without human intervention.